A Gorgeous Destination Wedding In Italy

Wedding date: September 25, 2010

Wedding theme: Elegant castle wedding

Guests: 40

Budget: $50,000

Best moment: “There were two memorable moments for us at the wedding. The first was at our wedding ceremony when one of my bridesmaids performed a piece of music my late father had written. As a child, my father had recorded my half sister and I performing the same song and the night before he died I had asked him if he remembered. The song was called ‘Sleep My Love’ by Charlie Mariano. That was the only time during the ceremony that I cried,” Zana recalls. “The other memorable, as well as emotional moment, was when Jason’s brother, David, gave his speech. David is six-foot-seven and used to be a competitive basketball player. He started his speech by congratulating us light-heartedly, but he soon, and quite unexpectedly, broke down in tears as he spoke about how I had changed Jason’s life for the better and that there had been moments he had feared for the wrong decisions Jason had made in his life before meeting me. Everyone in the room was stunned and most of us were tearing up. The two brothers hugged and it was a beautiful moment for all of us.”

Favourite detail: “My wedding cake was non-traditional and absolutely gorgeous. I initially saw it when my mother gave me a magazine with a Sylvia Weinstock cake on the cover. I loved her cake design so much that I went so far as even contacting Ms. Weinstock, however the cake could only be shipped as far as Rome and then I would have to organize the shipment from there. In the end, I asked my wedding planner to have someone design the same cake in Italy instead,” says Zana.

Wedding song: “At Last” by Etta James. “I had always known even before I met Jason that this would be my wedding song. For me, that song represented how long it had taken to finally meet Mr. Right. When I played the song for Jason, he loved it and I knew I had met my match,” explains Zana.

Honeymoon: Istanbul and Antalya, Turkey and Paris, France